Former UFC champion Conor McGregor explains why he rejected multiple movie offers before Road House

One of the biggest draws of the Road House reimagining is the acting debut of MMA fighter and former UFC champion Conor McGregor. However, as he tells Total Film in our new issue, which features Road House on the cover, this is by no means the first film offer he’s received. 

“I had turned down a good few roles in my time on the climb,” he tells us in our cover feature on the movie, out this Friday. “I’ve had directors show up at fight camp, really beautiful directors doing really top-end movies… And over and over, they’d come to me, and I always turned them down… I’d leave people a little high and dry. I probably have a few enemies out there that I don’t really know of because I had said, ‘I might do it.'”

The Road House reimagining, helmed by Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman, is different, he says. McGregor plays a new character Knox, who is brought in to clean house and take out Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal). The character introduces chaos to the story, while his very real fighting skills add a sense of danger to the film.

“I was just in awe of it all, to be honest with you, the whole process,” McGregor adds of making his film debut. “I didn’t know how I was going to take to it. I didn’t know whether I was going to like it, to be honest. I’m a fighting man – that’s my bread and butter. It’s where I come from… I’m not an actor, but I’m show business. That was my vibe to it. I felt that. I enjoyed every second of it.”

Pre-order the Road House issue of Total Film

Road House premieres on Prime Video on March 21. For exclusive interviews with Gyllenhaal, McGregor and many more, including the team behind the film’s groundbreaking new fighting style, check out the new issue of Total Film when it hits stands on March 1 (landing on a Friday, rather than a Thursday for a change).

Check out the covers below:

(Image credit: Prime Video/Amazon MGM Studios/Total Film)

Pre-order the issue here to bag your copy, or click here to subscribe to Total Film and never miss another exclusive. You’ll get every issue before it’s in stores, and you’ll get subscriber-exclusive covers. 

(Image credit: Universal/Warner Bros./Prime Video/Amazon MGM Studios/Focus Features)